Original Prin a hilarious romp of a campus novel
Prin is a midlife academic at a financially strapped Catholic university in downtown Toronto. A specialist in the sea horse in Canadian literature (particularly in the work of Michael Ondaatje), a committed husband, and a devoted father of four precocious daughters, Prin is more or less grateful with his lot in life, despite often wrestling with questions of faith.
Following a brush with cancer, Prin commits to becoming a better person. He wants to prove himself a loving husband and a more devout Catholic. His vows are soon tested when a former girlfriend — the sleek, chic, academicturned-consultant Wende — arrives on the scene to help save Prin’s institution. Pledging to do all he can to support the university president, Prin boards a plane to the Middle East with Wende to pursue a sketchy international partnership opportunity, despite — or perhaps because of — his uncertainty about Wende’s romantic intentions.
Boyagoda sets up a tightly paced novel in Original Prin that succeeds on a number of fronts. It’s a hilarious romp of a campus novel, poking fun at the market-driven ethos of the modern Canadian academy. It’s a touching look at the sacrifices demanded of familial love. At heart, it’s a richly humorous novel that explores the struggle for spiritual believers in a fiercely secular world. While Prin’s a typical middle-class Torontonian, worrying about bills and fretting over his career, he also probes his relationship with God on the daily. When Prin and Wende encounter a terrorist cell on their Middle East sojourn, the pace picks up, and the novel pivots, with varying success, into a contemporary geopolitical thriller. The first in a projected trilogy, Boyagoda ends the book on a cliffhanger that feels a tad too abrupt. With an instantly likeable protagonist, however, and a first-rate cast of supporting characters — including Prin’s overprotective mother, Lizzie, and her partner, Kareem — in this first instalment, Boyagoda has crafted a novel that’s fresh and utterly original.